Tell us what you are upto in your current campaign

[VONHARRIS]

Originally Posted by Vendor

Good work,

Thank you.

[Obltn Strand]

I encountered a convoy early at dawn. Situation favoured submerged attack.
Textbook attack at 2000m provided 3 hits out of four torpedoes fired. Sunk a tanker and damaged two freighters. No pursuit by escorts.

I matched with convoy's course, loaded torpedoes and surfaced. Contact was regained in an hour. Afternoon I got too close of the merchant which spotted me and opened fire. Escort raced to the scene too but it was evaded by diving.

Finally at dusk ready to overtake the convoy ship I was tailing disappeared from binocular view and sky turned grey. Soon after rain started. Now that pisses me off.
------
Luckily HJK-Schalke04 2-0, otherwise my flat screen would be on it's way to a recycle center.

[GoDeep]

Right now, I am at 150 meters below, running silent, hiding from a single furious Black Swan. Furious, because in a period of 24 hours, I have hit his convoy 4 times, sinking a total of 5 ships. That brings my total for this patrol to 8 ships sunk, some pretty big fish in there. Total tonnage for this patrol should be around the 55,000 mark.

Fortunately, it is pitch black up there and it seems my friend has given up the hunt already. He made several runs, dropped some charges, but never really got close.

I am totally out of torpedoes so better go home to pick up a new batch. Now if I can just make it back to Lorient in one piece. And there'd better be someone waiting on the dock for me with good news about my promotion to kaleun!

30 December, 1940, U-551, ObLtzS Dormann out.

[ijnfleetadmiral]

Originally Posted by GoDeep

And there'd better be someone waiting on the dock for me with good news about my promotion to kaleun!

I hear ya...I've been waiting for my promotion to Korvettenkapitan for about four patrols now...nothing. My crew and I both blame Winston the British Blowhard for this grievous error.

-Matt

[Kaptain Schlag]

VONHARRIS,

It's a fine coincidence that you were assigned the U-505, as earlier today I saw and walked through the very U-505 in Chicago. Your boat was an awesome sight I must say!

[Fish In The Water]

Originally Posted by Kaptain Schlag

...earlier today I saw and walked through the very U-505 in Chicago. Your boat was an awesome sight I must say!

Wow, must have been great!

I can only imagine but I'm guessing it'd be a very special (almost surreal) experience. Particularly for a died-in-the-wool sub enthusiast. Nothing quite compares to seeing, touching and breathing-in living history. Awesome!

[VONHARRIS]

Originally Posted by Kaptain Schlag

VONHARRIS,

It's a fine coincidence that you were assigned the U-505, as earlier today I saw and walked through the very U-505 in Chicago. Your boat was an awesome sight I must say!

Thank you.
I hope that some day I will be able to stand on the bridge of the R/L U-505.

[VONHARRIS]

Patrol 14
Start date : 16 March 1941 - Lorient
Orders: Patrol grid DB94

20 March 1942
Grid BE96
01:41 hours SS Empire Prome (Empire-type Freighter), 6780 tons. Cargo: Textiles. Crew: 67. Crew lost: 55
01:42 hours SS City of Coventry (Large Merchant), 10615 tons. Cargo: General Cargo. Crew: 102. Crew lost: 98
01:43 hours SS Glenearn (Heavy Merchant 01), 9092 tons. Cargo: Military Vehicles. Crew: 93. Crew lost: 87

16 April 1942
Grid DB98
01:22 hours MV Languedoc (Large Tanker), 9678 tons. Cargo: Aviation Fuel. Crew: 57. Crew lost: 55

17 April 1942
Grid DM23
05:25 hours MV Bangkok (Motor Tanker), 8700 tons. Cargo: Gasoline. Crew: 63. Crew lost: 21
18:51 hours USS Maumee (Naval oiler 2), 11209 tons. Cargo: Crude Oil. Crew: 47. Crew lost: 19
19:05 hours Supply tanker “Ranger”, 3230 tons

11 May 1942
Return to Lorient
57 days at sea
7 ships sunk
59304 tons
No damages or casualties

[VONHARRIS]

Patrol 15
Start date: 11 June 1942
Patrol orders: Grid DB94 - to sink what was left of patrol 14

11 July 1942
Grid DB94
00:04 hours Aircraft destroyed! PB4Y-1 Liberator - took minor damages
Grid DB98
13:38 hours SS Tyndareus (Ore Carrier), 8084 tons. Cargo: Coal. Crew: 69. Crew lost: 15
15:11 hours USS Hoel (Fletcher class), 2325 tons. Crew: 345. Crew lost: 293

12 July 1942
Grid DB95
01:06 hours SS City of Hull (Large Merchant), 10616 tons. Cargo: Grain. Crew: 71. Crew lost: 22
Grid DB98
21:55 hours USS Fox (Clemson class), 1190 tons. Crew: 111. Crew lost: 26
22:27 hours MV Henri Desprez (Large Tanker), 9677 tons. Cargo: Aviation Fuel. Crew: 43. Crew lost: 22

16 July 1942
Grid DB98
12:20 hours Emily (Armed Tugboat), 1275 tons. Crew: 18. Crew lost

09 August 1942
Grid CG84
06:00 hours SS Empire Capulet (Empire-type Freighter), 6781 tons. Cargo: Sugar. Crew: 51. Crew lost: 6

13 August 1942
Return to Lorient
64 days at sea
7 ships sunk
39948 tons
1 aircraft shot down
No casualties
Hull intergrity:92%

Career so far:
Patrols: 15
Start: 01 August 1939
Current: 13 August 1942
Days at sea: 689
87 ships sunk
489284 tons
4 aircraft destroyed
Types used: U-46 VIIB - U-109 IXB - U-505 IXC

[Kaptain Schlag]

U-412//Am46//June 7//1942

Evading escorts without trouble, 4 ships sunk for 30 000~tonnes
5 torpedoes spent
continuing for second attack run

[Geredis]

U4//Kiel Canal//August//1939 (GWX3)

1 Aug:
2049 - Left Kiel at 5 knots, preparing to transit Kiel Canal Plan to increase speed to approximately 10 knots to traverse the canal upon entering it.

2 Aug:
0000 - 82km from destination of Brunsbüttel at west end of the Kiel Canal, approximately 5 hours.
0125 - 56km from Brunsbüttel, approximately 4 hours.

Current orders are to head to AN59 and conduct operations there for 24 hours. I intend on conducting various drills and training exercises until further notice.

[Osmium Steele]

November 1939, just NE of Hartlepool in a Type IIA. I've been playing catchup with this medium cargo all afternoon. Visibility unlimited, wind 0/ms. Finally passed him in the evening gloom and put an electric into him from 900 meters with a magnetic exploder. (unusual in 1939)

Very nice boom. Target slows to 7 knots and I decided to lower the scope, cross behind him and evade the two ASW trawlers my hydrophone operator can hear coming out of Hartlepool.

Target slows, but never quite stops, he's at short range. Sonar reports the AWS trawlers turning away. Pop up the scope expecting to see the burning wreck...

... Nothing.

No ship, no slick, no bobbing cargo, no lifeboats, no ship sunk message.

Hydrophone operator still reports closest contact as a merchant on that bearing, short range, moving away.

He's a ghost ship. It wasn't yet fully dark, and this target should be 3000 meters away.

His sonar trace fades slowly from the map, and once it disappears entirely, sonar stops reporting the contact.

I'm figuring it despawned when it came within range of Hartlepool.

20% of my loadout wasted on a ghost ship.

I was so ticked I save within sight of the piers outside Hartlepool. We'll see if I CTD when I start the game tonight. I did remove the Read-only flag from all the files, so we'll see.

[VONHARRIS]

Patrol 16
Orders : Patrol grid GR28 , Capetown

Start date: 13 September 1942
Place: Lorient

20 September 1942
Grid DH61
14:55 hours SS Ostrobotnia (Small Merchant), 2396 tons. Cargo: Foodstuffs. Crew: 26. Crew lost: 18
14:56 hours MV Nodaway (Small Tanker), 2051 tons. Cargo: Gasoline. Crew: 15. Crew lost: 7

03 October 1942
Grid FE62
03:14 hours MV Agra (Granville-type Freighter), 4707 tons. Cargo: Coffee. Crew: 71. Crew lost: 49
03:42 hours SS Nagara (Heavy Merchant 01), 9092 tons. Cargo: Bauxite. Crew: 79. Crew lost: 54

16 October 1942
Grid GH93
22:56 hours SS Clan MacAulay (Heavy Merchant 01), 9093 tons. Cargo: Sulfur. Crew: 79. Crew lost: 56

17 October 1942
Grid GJ78
18:26 hours SS Pancration (Small Freighter), 2228 tons. Cargo: Grain. Crew: 34. Crew lost: 32

18 October 1942
Grid GR24
23:06 hours SS City of Hankow (Large Merchant), 10615 tons. Cargo: Tobacco. Crew: 70. Crew lost: 9

26 October 1942
Grid : (none) 90 Km WSW of Port Elizabeth
08:39 hours SS Penthievre (Small Merchant), 2425 tons. Cargo: Timber. Crew: 34. Crew lost: 9

27 October 1942
Grid : (none) 213 Km SW of Port Elizabeth
14:44 hours SS Clan Colquoun (Large Merchant), 10616 tons. Cargo: Machinery. Crew: 81. Crew lost: 12
14:44 hours MV Eola (Small Tanker), 2052 tons. Cargo: Crude Oil. Crew: 17. Crew lost: 7

06 December 1942
Returned at Lorient
85 days at sea
10 ships sunk
55275 tons
No casualties
Hull integrity: 89%

[GoDeep]

Patrol 11, January 21, 1941, U-551.

Heading to grid square DH56, a new patrol area for me. Nothing eventful until the early morning for January 24. BdU reports a small convoy in my area, not 6 KM from me. It is pitch black and I decide to intercept. I change course due south on a path crossing the reported convoy and immediately the cry from the bridge comes: ship spotted!

I race to the bridge and see it's an L class escort. Behind it, heading north east coming towards me, I see a single large cargo. Well, that's a very small convoy, I notice myself thinking. And indeed, it hardly seems worthy of that name. What the heck, he's coming at me at an ideal angle for a torpedo attack under his keel. Since it is very dark, only a very narrow crescent of the new moon is out, I select my two steam torpedoes for a surface attack, set up the shot and at the moment the torpedoes leave the tube, I hear another ship spotted message. And this time, it's not my over-enthusiastic watch crew notifying me of the same ship for the 142nd time. It IS another ship. And another one after that!

As it turns out, it's a small convoy with one escort and three merchant vessels. Two large cargo and one coastal freighter. Being that I am over 2500 metres away, there is no time to set up another shot and hope it hits before the first shot hits the target and all hell will break lose. I decide to break off the attack and return when everything has gone quiet again.
I speed away on a course due west, counting the seconds until my first torpedoes will strike. Suddenly, *boom* and 10 seconds later, another *boom*. The large cargo in the lead is struck and both torpedoes detonate underneath the ship. Search lights come on, flares are fired and for a second things look bad for me. I guess I am too far away though because nobody comes close to spotting me. The large cargo is on fire, the other ships begin their zig-zag pattern and the escort makes a broad sweep in the area where they think I should be. I am by that time more than 1500 metres away from my firing position. About 12 minutes after being struck, the large cargo sinks beneath the waves.

I make a large semi-circle, keeping the rest of the convoy just at the edge of visual range. After a while I notice that the zig-zagging stops and the convoy has returned to its original course. I am reloaded and have managed to gain enough on the convoy to obtain a good firing position. There's still about an 1,5 hours of darkness left, so I go for a second surface attack, planning to hit the coastal freighter and the second large cargo in one fell swoop, with one and two torpedoes respectively.
This time around though, I am less lucky, it seems. I probably got too close to the escort vessel, because suddenly he shoots up a flare. Incredibly he doesn't seem to see me on the surface, barely 2000 metres from his position. I don't take my chances though and submerge to PD. Looking through the attack periscope, I see that luck has not left me, though. Both merchant ships are still on course and not zig-zagging. The furthest is just under 3000 metres away. I decide to take the shots I planned anyway.

Three torpedoes leave the tubes, all three set for running under the keel. All three detonate with less than 40 seconds between the first and the last. The coastal freighter immediately begins to list and sinks in less than 5 minutes. The large cargo is listing by the bow and comes to a full stop, but she does not seem to be sinking. The escort is getting too close for comfort now and I dive to safety. Running silent at 150 metres, he does not detect me. No depth charges are dropped. After about 45 minutes he breaks off the search and heads off towards the north east, the original course of the convoy. That poor captain has some explaining to do when he gets home!

Meanwhile, the second large cargo has been sitting on the surface without sinking. I decide to surface and finish her off with the deck gun. The only traffic in the area is the rapidly departing escort and that's already a long way off. I had noticed through the periscope that the large cargo had a gun mounted at the stern, but she was listing so badly at the bow that I did not believe she could use it at targets really close by. I surfaced 300 metres off her stern and immediately manned the deck gun. It took some 35 shells to finish her off, and all the time she fired back, but fortunately, none of her shots got close. Some landed far away, others a bit closer, but none were really close. I guess I was right about her gun not being able to fire at such an angle.

With the last merchant vessel clearly sinking, I turned back to my original course only to spot the escort racing towards me. He's maybe some 5000 metres away but I don't bother to hang out and find out the details. I guess he was obscured from my view by the large cargo. I crash dive and manage to evade the escort after 10 minutes. He gives up and leaves in the direction he came.
I stay submerged to reload and rest my crew.

Guess what: scant 1,5 days later (game time), a similar convoy is reported very close to me. I intercept this convoy too and this time there's a single escort, a large cargo, a coastal freighter and an Empire type. This time the large cargo and the Empire get sent to the bottom. If this keeps up, I'll be out of torpedoes before I reach my patrol area...

Do you think the game knows it's my birthday and this has been its gift to me?

[VONHARRIS]

Patrol 17
Start date : 06 January 1943
Port: Lorient
Orders: Patrol grid GR52 , Capetown

17 February 1943
Grid GR56 Convoy attack
03:33 hours HMS Cumberland (Kent class), 13300 tons. Crew: 964. Crew lost: 337
06:07 hours USS Saugatuck (Naval oiler 2), 11210 tons. Cargo: Aviation Fuel. Crew: 78. Crew lost: 35

18 February 1943
Grid GR56 Convoy attack
18:22 hours SS Sitoebondo (Large Merchant), 10617 tons. Cargo: Machinery. Crew: 80. Crew lost: 74
18:25 hours SS Montenol (Nipiwan Park-type Tanker), 2476 tons. Cargo: Crude Oil. Crew: 25. Crew lost: 19



02 March 1943
Grid CF42
20:18 hours SS Treminnard (Medium Merchant 06), 5173 tons. Cargo: Grain. Crew: 39. Crew lost: 21

14 March 1943
Grid FJ33
07:46 hours MV Airmore (Tugboat), 1122 tons. Crew: 30. Crew lost: 29
07:48 hours MV Corheath (Coastal Tanker), 1288 tons. Cargo: Gasoline. Crew: 15. Crew lost: 1

16 March 1943
Grid FC79
02:47 hours SS Cens (Small Merchant), 2397 tons. Cargo: Scrap Metal. Crew: 22. Crew lost: 1

Grid FC76
07:27 hours MV Crista (Small Merchant), 2398 tons. Cargo: Steel. Crew: 33. Crew lost: 2




06 April 1943
Grid BF58
20:23 hours Submarine sunk: USS Trigger (Gato class), 1526 tons. Crew: 60. Crew lost: 26

08 Arpil 1943
Return to Lorient
93 days at sea
9 ships sunk
51507 tons
No casualties or damages

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